No Pride in Prisons say if police are in fact marching in the parade, as reported by GayNZ.com Daily News in late January, then they will be going ahead with their boycott event. “We're pretty sure we're gonna have to go ahead with our rally,” says Emmy Rākete of No Pride in Prisons. The group have created a boycott event on Facebook for 20 February stating that if the Police or Corrections march in the parade, they would be boycotting and protesting. On January 29 GayNZ.com Daily News reported that Pride and Corrections are still in discussion as to whether Corrections will march in the parade, despite Corrections earlier advising that it had been excluded as an organisation. The Board have also advised that the Police will definitely be in the parade. “It's disappointing the Pride Board don't see themselves as having a responsibility to say that, for example,” says Rākete, “the Police's use of force against Māori at 8x the rate they use it against European New Zealanders is their problem. It's all of our problem, so if police are marching, we're going to go ahead with the rally.” No Pride in Prisons have called for other organisations to join them in boycotting the parade and Rākete says, “We’ve had a lot of support from other participants, but I think most people are waiting to see if the pride board are going to flip flop on the issue of whether or not the rapes of trans people in prison is a human rights violation before they decide if they'll be boycotting." The anti-pride rally will take place on the K’ Rd overbridge on February 20 at 5.30pm, to coincide with the Auckland Pride Parade.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 7th February 2016 - 12:34pm